Network systems such as switches and routers often consist of a chassis and multiple removable line cards. The line cards are customized to perform specific functions such as control, switch, and interface functions. The line cards slide into “slots” of the chassis and communicate between each other through a backplane. Line cards that perform interface functions often include electrical and/or optical interfaces that allow the network system to be connected via electrical wires or optical fibers to other network system. In order to increase the capacity of the network system, it is often desirable to increase the density of interfaces on each line card. For example, a single line card may include eight, sixteen, or thirty-two different optical interfaces that are connected at the front panel of the line card. These optical interfaces are either individually connected to the front panel of the line card at individual interfaces or connected to the front panel by parallel connectors if the corresponding optical fibers are bundled into parallel optical fiber bundles (also known as “ribbon cables”).
When optical fibers are individually connected to the front panel of a line card, each of the optical fibers must be individually disconnected to remove the line card from the chassis. Disconnecting and connecting each individual optical fiber is a time consuming and error prone process. When the optical fibers are connected to a line card by a ribbon fiber, it is impossible to individually disconnect a single fiber. Because a single fiber cannot be individually disconnected, multiple fibers must be disconnected to service or test any single port of the line card.
In view of the above-described concerns, what is needed is an optical fiber management technique for a chassis-based network system that is easy to use and that is compatible with parallel optical fiber bundles.